The Darklord Pan
by Razell
Summary: My first foray into Ravenloft in years, Peter Pan and Captain Hook are dueling Darklords in the cursed Demiplane of Dread.


The Darklord Pan

_Ship's Log,_

_Date – I know not._

_Location – Hell._

_What did I do to deserve this fate? _

_What gods have I offended? _

_The mists grow thick around_ The Jolly Roger,_ and I sense that, whatever gods or demons have chosen me for this torment now laugh at my suffering._

_Was I too harsh with my crew? _

_Did I not give the sea the respect she deserves?_

_At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that HE is damned as well. He can not touch a single sliver of wood from_ The Jolly Roger_ without intense agony, even as I can not set foot upon his accursed isle, or even leave my ship._

_I am alone. _

_My crew, dead, butchered by him, and their bodies vanished as the mists enveloped my ship, his island and the sea itself._

_I first noticed _

_Tick Tock._

_She is at it again. _

_The siren. _

_Not a beautiful maiden with fair skin and perfect proportion, but a hideous parody of a mermaid, bloated, rotting, yet still trying to seduce me with her feminine wiles. _

_Does the wretched thing even realize that she is _dead?

_The sea crawls with unearthly abominations, ungodly things that should never have existed in the first place._

_Tick Tock._

_But I digress._

_It began when I took Pan's girl... _

_Her name escapes me. I had hoped to lure him here to put an end to his unholy existence but he was too cunning. He and his pack of brats boarded_ The Jolly Roger _under cover of darkness. Then Pan struck down my gunner, poor Bill Jukes, with a dagger to the back. A cowardly assassination from a miserable cur. _

_That was when I first noticed a thick blanket of fog that stretched as far as the eye could see. _

_We fought, pirates and Lost Boys fell together as the mists grew thicker and thicker. _

_I slew several of the whelps myself... Lest you judge me too harshly I must...  
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_Tick Tock._

_I must explain. They attacked me, I had to defend myself, my crew..._

_Then Pan himself gave me the courtesy he did not give Mr. Jukes and faced me, blade in hand._

_His child's face was taunting and his eyes were colder than those of even the most brutal Sea Wolves or Buccaneers I have ever met._

_And he was laughing._

_With the blood of my men staining his blade he laughed in my face..._

_Peter Pan is no child. He is a demon in human form._

_I fought the little fiend, fending off his childish yet wicked attacks._

_Then I heard the ticking._

_Tick Tock._

_Tick Tock._

_Even as I hear it now. _

_Even as I have heard it every day since I arrived in this hell._

_I know not what happened next. _

_When I awoke, my crew was gone, the Lost Boys were gone. But the ticking remained._

_Tick Tock._

_Tick Tock._

_I fear I am going mad._

_Some time later Pan appeared, demanding to know what I had done to his comrades. The arrogant brat! He murdered my men, good men, and blamed_ me_ for his misfortunes! I saw that with him was a fairy, but it was not his Tinkerbell. It was larger, with a wide, Cheshire grin revealing broken, rotten teeth. I have since learned from the fiend itself that it is called a Powrie, the most sadistic and wicked of the Elvish races._

_When Pan set foot upon_ The Jolly Roger_ he let out a howl as if he had stepped into a blazing inferno. He fled as if Death itself were on his heels, taking his demonic fey with him._

_I rejoiced over this turn of events. _

_Until I tried to pursue the imp. _

_A terrible fear seized me as I moved to lower the longboat._

_For She was waiting._

_The crocodile was waiting for me._

_Tick Tock._

_I am bound to this ship._

_Tick Tock._

_Tick Tock._

_Tick Tock._

_Once, a ship appeared from the infernal Mists. _

_A lovely caravel, the_ Mercy._ Her captain, Ridg Baykur, had his cabin boy stolen away by Pan. I thought him an ally, but I soon learned the awful truth. Captain Baykur and his crew were vampires._ Long Tom_ sent the_ Mercy_ and her cursed crew to Davy Jones' Locker._

_It was an act of mercy, no pun intended. _

_I never did find what became of Young Colin. I had hoped that the little beast would slay Pan, but apparently he either failed or Pan slew him first. _

_I think I might have preferred the vampire to Pan._

_Am I_ already_ mad?_

_Dear God! What could I have done to deserve this fate?!_

_Captain James Hook_

_..._

Peter Pan was bored and lonely.

The Lost Boys had vanished. All of the pirates, save Hook himself, were dead or had vanished as mysteriously as The Lost Boys. Even Tinkerbell was gone, replaced by a leering monster that mocked his pain and misery. Lorell was not a companion, but a torturer . . .

This was_ not_ Neverland.

Not _his_ Neverland, anyway.

Lorell (had he not lied, he loved to lie) had told him that was where everyone was, (_everyone that had survived_, as he put it), the _other_ Neverland, the Neverland that he knew. The Lost Boys, Tinkerbell, the Indians, what pirates had survived the attack...

_Wendy_.

That hurt him most of all. He had wanted Wendy to be with him forever.

She was like a mother to him.

And perhaps something _more_, with time.

This Neverland was a dark shadow of his happy home.

It was a place of evil.

Everything that had been good was gone, aside from his home, his bed, Neverland was filled with evil

The island still responded to his moods, his desires, but in the wrong way. The things he wanted vanished, and the nightmares came in their places. And there were things, horrible creatures. Rotting mermaids, hideous fish-men with razor sharp claws that attacked anything that came near, twisted spirits of the dark and haunted woods.

He was alone on an island of terror.

And he was trapped.

He could no longer travel to the other world, the human world, to find boys to bring back to Neverland. He could go no further than The Mists that ringed the island.

He couldn't even set foot on The Jolly Roger without terrible pain.

Part of his 'curse', Lorell had said.

A ship had come, once. A caravel.

_Mercy_.

There had been a boy aboard, _Colin_. When he'd approached Colin, he had been eager to leave the ship and his cruel captain. He did not, however, inform Peter that he, and indeed the entire crew, were vampires. Strange vampires, too. Colin had sank his fangs, not in Peter's throat, but in the_ back of his neck_. Peter had fought him off, and the mists had taken the young vampire away before he could take his revenge.

He almost wished that Colin had not run away. Even the company of a crazy vampire was better than being so utterly alone.

Why?

Why was _he_ being punished?

Lorell claimed that he had sent the Lost Boys to their deaths against Captain Hook. That he had been wrong to stab Billy Jukes in the back, and that these 'wicked' deeds had attracted the attention of . . . _Something._

Something that had chosen to punish him.

But he was Peter Pan!

He was _never_ wrong.

Jukes had been a pirate, he'd deserved to die, so what if he'd stabbed him in the back?! What was he supposed to do, stand in front of _Long Tom_ and challenge the gunner to a fair duel? Like _he_ wouldn't have have hidden in the darkness, waiting for Peter, and drove his dagger in Peter's back...

The Lost Boys.

True, some of them had died on Hook's blade. It was painful to watch, but that was life, and death. So what if he led the attack, did that make him responsible for their deaths?

Hook, not Pan had slain those boys.

He had_ nothing_ to repent, _nothing_ to feel guilty for!

_Hook_.

It should have ended when Hook fell into the jaws of the crocodile. But the next day Hook was alive and everyone else, friend and foe, had vanished.

Since then it had been a ceaseless battle. Peter had killed Hook again, and the next day he had returned, alive and well. Peter had tried to burn The Jolly Roger, but it would not alight. And, then . . .

Old Hook had killed Peter.

Ran him through with a rapier.

He awoke in his bed, alive, physically unharmed, mentally devastated.

He'd nearly gone as mad as Colin, then.

Hook died again.

Peter died again.

An endless cycle. One would die, then return to life to kill the other. There seemed no escape.

It wasn't _fair_!

If only he had _someone_ to talk to . . . Other boys to play with.

And Lorell...

But no friends.

Not one.

Only Hook.

It was all Hook's fault! And Hook would pay!

He picked up his dagger and balanced it in his hand.

_Let's see who dies today . . ._

The End.

Notes:

Neverland is most definitely an Island of Terror. Peter Pan is its Darklord (Demilord), while Captain Hook is Darklord (Lord) of _The Jolly Roger_.

Colin is a pitiful, insane Cerebral Vampire boy. Cerebral Vampires drain cerebral fluids, not blood, from their victims, hence his odd attack on Peter. He has two personalities, one an evil vampire, the other a terrified, abused child existing in fear of his brutal captain Ridg Baykur, who beats him frequently.

_Colin, Captain Ridg Baykur_ and the caravel _Mercy_ appear in the Ravenloft _Bleak House_ adventures.

_Peter Pan_

Demilord of Neverland

Chaotic Evil Druid/Human

Crimes – Murdering Billy Jukes in cold blood. Sacrificing his Lost Boys to gain Wendy for himself. Tormenting the pirates.

Curse – To be alone forever, a child with no one to play with. To be surrounded by evil and undead fey. To never set foot upon _The Jolly Roger_.

_Captain James Hook_

Lord of _The Jolly Roger_

Neutral Evil Pirate/Human

Crimes – Spending years trying to kill Peter and dragging his crew with him, kidnapping Wendy, killing Lost Boys.

Curse – To be tormented by Peter Pan. To never leave _The Jolly Roger._ To hear the crocodile's clock every waking moment of his eternal life.

Neither lord can truly die, though they can feel pain. They are doomed to battle forever, to die and die and die again.

_Lorell_

Chaotic Evil Powrie/Shadow Fey

Peter's personal demon, sent by The Dark Powers to mock and torment him.

_Colin_

Lawful Neutral Human/Chaotic Evil Cerebral Vampire

Currently in Saulbridge Sanitarium in Mordentshire, undergoing treatment for multiple personality disorder. They still haven't realized he really _is_ a vampire.

_Lorell_ is my creation, everything Ravenloft/D&D belongs to TSR and Wizards of The Coast.

I don't know who holds the copyright on Peter Pan, probably Disney.


End file.
